Merab Dvalishvili had expressed reluctance to face Team Khabib’s rising star, Umar Nurmagomedov. Despite his efforts to avoid the matchup, UFC CEO Dana White confirmed that the two bantamweight top dogs would collide at UFC 311. Frustrated by the announcement, Dvalishvili has seemingly shifted his focus from the Octagon to voicing his frustrations at Team Khabib.

The tension escalated recently when Dvalishvili confronted a fan he accused of being a supporter of the Dagestani fighter. The fan, allegedly provoking him with comments, became the target of Dvalishvili’s anger as he chose to address the remarks head-on instead of brushing them off.  In response to Dvalishvili’s antics, Khabib Nurmagomedov, Umar’s mentor and cousin stepped in with a firm statement. According to the Instagram page MMA Pros Pick, Khabib delivered a sharp ultimatum to the Georgian fighter.

‘The Eagle’ said, “I think when he [Merab] was beginning his career, he was acting good. When he became champion, he could not deal with this. Umar is here not because he is my cousin. He’s here because he’s 18-0 and 6-0 in the UFC. On January 18, he will show why Merab is nervous.”

2024 is coming to an end, with UFC concluding with the Tampa fight card, but Dana White is already 10 steps ahead and planned the 2025 PPV to start the new year with a bang! He has given the whole bread rather than breadcrumbs to the UFC fandom regarding the upcoming matches. UFC 311 has been officially announced and it will happen on Jan 18th, at the new Intuit Dome in Los Angeles, where champions will fight and legacies will be penned.

Interestingly, Team Khabib has their hands full right now because guess who will be headlining this event? Lightweight top dog Islam Makhachev and the no.1 contender Arman Tsarukyan. On top of that the co-main event will feature Dvalishvili against Umar on the quest for bantamweight belt. The Dagestani camp has two of their best fighters in the same event and Khabib Nurmagomedov seems pretty pumped up. However, we all know how Dvalishvili was not keen on fighting Umar and wanted to fight in the middle of 2025 rather than at the start. Then how did this fight come about?

Dana White spilled the beans on Merab Dvalishvili’s earnest request to him.

While making the huge announcement about UFC 311, the UFC boss decided to spill some tea regarding what the Georgian had told him secretly.  Dana White, revealed, “Merab came into the office late last night, told us that he is tired of listening to Umar disrespect him, and wanted to make this fight happen as soon as possible. We called Umar. He was sleeping in Dagestan, and he said, ‘hell yes, anywhere, anytime’.”

Dvalishvili is on an 11-fight winning streak with 4 victories over former champs during this run and so, questioned his opponent’s credentials creating a rift between them. While speaking to MMA Junkie he said, ” I’m not excited for this fight because I know he got here easy. He’s a good fighter but he got pushed. It’s like cheating a little bit to get here. I have 12 fights in the UFC, I beat like seven or eight ranked fighters. Umar don’t fight any ranked fighters yet.” However, Khabib has answered back to this jibe and warned Dvalishvili of how Umar would expose his fear to the audience.

Meanwhile ‘Young Eagle’ was seen training with Henry Cejudo who has experience in fighting against Dvalishvili. So the training with a former bantamweight champ and high-level wrestler is surely going to give the Dagestani leverage over his opponent. Nevertheless, who do you think will reign? Will it be team Khabib who already made history with three champs in three promotions, or will it be Dvalishvili?